Title

a western

rider in fog
his days of moving
over blue sand

yellow hills blue
gullies a mask
against which

the plain agitates
water hole
he said   he sought

water hole
my new language
my horse

white wind
bare cave
north flat

stirs at the
far crack   language
always begins

like this   a circle
of ash   weathered bone
burned its imprint

in rock's underside
a circle of home
laid waste   paint

on sand   eye
the murdered letters
in whose smoke

hills dance choppy
choppy rock-edge
tilts up under

fire-burial
chip-flake
the no voice



  • the border stone
    the fallen wall
    the damaged signpost

    a wind mark
    the memory of trade
    the calico

    pleats
    the array
    the memory of town

    telegraph padlock
    billow of wives
    arsenal

    near air
    where porches were
    in ribbon's domain

    gesture
    pulverized by cliff
    and gust

    the function of the name
    cancelled
    against the flint margin

    the border
    is now everywhere
    traders thread it

    it fissures   in its clefts
    new borders harden
    it ends

    sun turns
    past frost patch
    a pine

    devoid of location
    in place of his distance
    from the settlement



  • not even a town
    a clan
    in the furred hills

    lawless the king
    of the thickets
    the shack trail

    impasse

    marked by pebbles
    depicting an arrow

    not even talk
    for days
    the torn can

    on cliff top
    blackening
    in the sun strokes

    the law maker
    studies brambles
    wells   the grain

    of what walls in
    the entrance
    to the home of speech

    a system of guards
    long light
    the screeching grassland

    a hawk signals
    rain
    or approaching war

    their names
    hidden
    within the world

    they saw shadows
    move among them
    in the open shelter



  • penny whistle
    prairie dog
    lull

    hoot
    dying on the air
    gulps hard

    song tag
    splintered
    dropped off

    under ice stars
    stiff sod
    footfall

    far out
    in the basin
    the rock tongue

    throws back
    shrills
    from brush country

    a small light
    carries far
    in the flatlands

    runs clear
    across seventy miles
    of partial cover

    a hole through which
    the rim rider
    can read sign

    by sky tone
    and how breeze feels
    on the cheek

    shapes himself
    to the fork
    of the plain's shape



  • same old stream
    twenty years
    froze over

    cracked rock moss
    calcified
    gray-pink a few voices

    being born
    in the furrows
    the green strip

    broken out
    crops
    the wet blade

    rooted far down
    a curlycue
    briar light-spindled

    formed whole
    dropped
    on the brim

    sun's long
    and smeared
    behind the fog

    morning prayer
    needs
    the swarming bone

    by the ant hill
    whitens with noon
    the barn sags

    toward death
    cold apples tuning
    night birds

    the wings of the dawn
    boards the wood
    the field settles



  • owl light
    twitter a voice
    in the head

    bent
    through years
    my old name

    brother
    lintel the volumes
    a road pack

    to the crossing
    for payment
    hired a battle

    spied
    the wheel gone
    up east

    my old picture
    the blaze
    in the mill

    sacrificed
    a string of days
    for betrayal   inherit

    buckle globe
    dried strap
    no room for

    a branch
    to hang a mirror on
    strip out of

    my old house
    disengaged
    the mail route

    have let drop
    the stamp
    from the name of it



  • white decay
    spaded over
    the shoots

    a soil turning
    pale green
    cast up

    straws
    whipped across
    the grooves

    scraped out
    grove   bald
    hilltop

    maps the seams
    the boundary ages
    grassgrown

    easter tide
    the forest party
    three months silence

    a thick coil
    hooked   fallen
    at the tree base

    empty avenues
    in our holdings
    untitled creeks

    broom piles
    and sloped webs
    within a year

    on the raked floor
    cocoon
    hollow message

    the bark shaped
    like a signature
    under his thumbs



  • emptiness
    voluptuous mermaid
    isolate

    sand station
    carves
    cheap bible

    sayings candy
    motto the river
    leavings

    unburied air
    the rafters smoke out
    blood odor

    voluptuous mermaid
    water stain
    rust the apostle

    swine dragon
    whore inhabit
    speechless days

    the slow season
    perch south
    study dust

    a slug track
    the rail stuck
    with knife pictures

    chipping torsos
    his ghost hall
    on moon ridge

    any morning
    see sack blanket
    oat the post

    wake
    in light of
    massacre



  • roar
    chilled up
    in twig wall

    mud bundle
    packed in
    snow animal's

    river blizzard
    word
    for flame

    trading dialect
    memorized
    ice months

    otter log
    pelt cut haft
    for when it melts

    now mend flaps
    dam up nest
    edge   outside

    black wind
    the faceless
    barricade

    sucking through
    reed beneath
    the smoke gash

    my winter hole
    warm
    against night

    rumbles
    in dream tongue
    a hum

    coiling
    like in small hills
    the fur waves



  • river track
    lassoing
    the bent current

    drinks land
    eyes
    the dock dwindling

    in dust light
    the body air
    speck bridge

    a tree line
    go down into
    marsh points

    rain crevice
    the sweep
    deckless

    a swing run
    caped
    wind-slipped

    the skated
    hatch tilt
    cleaves

    a road
    on top of
    the world

    the knit frame
    armstruck
    pole haul

    the sliding among
    black criss cross
    wood stand

    the gone
    a stretched memory
    a tune core



  • plain flower
    creases
    the vapor trail

    in stampede
    the rock forms
    flicker

    meadow
    sky
    the cloud house

    springs open
    the ground drums
    never saw

    a mask like that
    before
    trees in mouth

    mountains poking
    through nostrils
    the ears

    crammed with thunder
    the eyes feathered suns
    trailing fire

    over gashed soil
    the horizon rolls
    its dividing belly

    the weight of the mask
    pulls the sky tight
    the concave cliffs

    soak up voices
    from the nests
    and pulsing bushes

    the sound
    dives
    into its own echo



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